THE DUCK CREEK ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, WELLFLEET, MASSACHUSETTS (1970-present)

Beginning more than 200 years ago, the land adjacent to Duck Creek Harbor grew into the population and commercial center of Wellfleet, following the abandonment of Billingsgate settlements and the silting up of Bound Brook Island Harbor. Duck Creek today is one of the most scenic areas in Wellfleet, yet for two centuries the Creek has been the dumping grounds for a considerable amount of the discarded trash of Wellfleet Village. The trash of yesterday is the material culture of Wellfleet Village today. Duck Creek extended from the now greatly diminished Jerry Hawes Pond (a coastal lagoon) through tidal flow connected the pond with the present day Marina and with Wellfleet Harbor. Jerry Hawes Pond, "almost completely destroyed by the building of Route 6", is visible from near the intersection of Route 6 and East Main Street and also from behind the Wicked Oyster Restaurant.

There are three major sources of the many thousands of artifacts that ultimately wound up in the bottom of Duck Creek: (1) the domestic homes along East Main Street, East Commercial Street, and Commercial Street bordering the Creek; (2) the business establishments along these same three Wellfleet streets; (3) the maritime trade (near-shore whaling, shellfishing, and the mackerel and cod fisheries) that grew up in these protected waters. Also, in the late eighteen hundreds, the new economy of tourism brought with it the sale of souvenir items, some of which eventually broke and were discarded into Duck Creek.

Prior to 1870, this small harbor was the site of numerous piers and wharves that delivered merchandise to and received merchandise from many shallow draft sailing ships, able to enter Duck Creek at higher tides. A ship building industry existed in Duck Creek in the nineteenth century, even as the Creek was silting up. In 1870, the Cape Cod Railroad reached Wellfleet, and an extensive railroad dike was built across the mouth of the Creek, thereby ending the ability of sailing ships to access the Duck Creek Harbor. With the tidal flow severely restricted into and out of Duck Creek, a deep layer of silt and mud accumuIated over time throughout the salt marsh ecosystem. This layer of muck ("black mayonaise") today ranges from one to four feet thick, and in addition to entrapping erosion resistant materials such as metals, ceramics, and glass, it provides a fairly anoxic environment that preserves such otherwise decomposable materials as leather and wood. The railroad now is long gone from Wellfleet, but the dike remains at this historic and scenic place in the Town of Wellfleet. So does Uncle Tim's Bridge, the popular foot bridge that has been in its present location since at least the 1840s. Uncle Tim's Bridge was used as a short cut for the nineteenth century residents of South Wellfleet to more directly enter Wellfleet Village.

Over the past 50 years, I have recovered more than 80 museum drawers of artifacts representing the material culture of Wellfleet Village. The various assemblages of artifacts include ceramics (coarse earthenwares, semi-porcelains, Staffordshireware), pressed or pattern glass, embossed and unembossed bottles, iron, brass, wood, leather, and faunal material. The faunal material (discarded kitchen waste bones of cows, sheep, and pigs, all showing their butchering cuts) is valuable for a socioeconomic study of the residents of Wellfleet Village, and of the sailors who lived and worked from here. One spare rib cut plainly shows the patterned black ink dye marks of a sailor practicing the art of scrimshaw carving. The earliest produced item I have recovered from the mud is a rat-tail pewter spoon, ca. 1770. A brass box iron of European origin dates to ca. 1790. A brass near-shore telescope engraved "J.J. Messer, London/Day or Night" dates to ca. 1820-30. Most artifacts are from the period 1830-1900. One of the most interesting Staffordshire vessels is the greater part of a pitcher with transfer print inscription, "WHITE SQUALL/C.N. & Co./1864/LIVERPOOL", recovered by a nineteenth century Wellfleet resident from the 164 foot iron barque "White Squall", which wrecked in 1867 off Cahoon Hollow. This pitcher matches a complete "White Squall" plate that resides in the WHS&M collection, donated by a present day Wellfleet resident. The Staffordshire makers' marks on the bottom of more than 300 ironstone china vessels are one important means of dating the artifacts. The embossed and unembossed bottles also are quite datable for manufacture and provide a cross check of the Staffordshireware dates.

This long-term archaeological project, begun in 1970, also includes a study of primary and secondary sources of the history of Wellfleet Village. Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum archival materials include a superb collection of historical photographs of Duck Creek, Wellfleet wharves, and the domestic and commercial structures of adjacent Commercial Street. I am well along in in the process of photographing the houses and businesses of Wellfleet Village that date to the 18th and 19th centuries, still present along East Commercial Street, Commercial Street, East Main Street, Main Street, Squire's Lane, Masonic Lane, Bank Street, and Baker Avenue. Each of these structures has data sheets developed under the supervision of the late Helen Purcell, a former WHS&M curator. These highly informative data sheets are on file at the Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum. They were prepared by Helen and other members of the Wellfleet Historical Commission in support of Wellfleet's application to the Massachusetts Historical Commission for recognition of the historical significance of Wellfleet Village.

During 1981-1983, when I was a student in the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, I undertook an independent project on the analysis of the material culture of Wellfleet's Duck Creek, based on the artifacts I had recovered by that time. The study was under the supervision of Frank Hole, then chair of Yale's Department of Anthropology. I produced a 100 page unpublished document. In 1998, as a science teacher in the New Haven, Connecticut Public Schools, I participated in one of that year's Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute seminars, "Art and Artifacts: The Cultural Interpretation of Objects", lead by Professor Jules D. Prown, now Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus, History of Art at Yale University. The curriculum unit I wrote for use in my high school Advanced Placement Environmental Science course is entitled "Technological Change in a Coastal New England Village, 1790-1990." The unit is based on my extensive archaeological work at Duck Creek. The link to that curriculum unit is:

teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1998/3/98.03.....

Currently, I am engaged in a more complete cataloguing of the Duck Creek artifacts. I plan to submit articles on the various assemblages of materials that I have recovered from Duck Creek to appropriate scholarly publications, beginning with the ceramics. All materials recovered from the tidal mud flats will be made available to Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum collections upon my completion of this study.

The albums available here depict early Barnstable County maps and my photographs of Duck Creek taken over a period of years, the various buildings adjacent to the Creek, and the various assemblages of artifacts recovered from the mud flats. I continue to add photos to these albums in documenting the material culture of Wellfleet Village. I am a life member of the Wellfleet Historical Society and have benefited immeasurably from the resources of the museum. I am particularly grateful to the late Helen G. Purcell, a long-time friend of the Broker Family and a former WHS&M Curator, and to the staff, board, and volunteers of the Society. I thank David Wright for his invaluable assistance in locating WHS&M materials relevant to this study.

Steve Broker

Wellfleet, Massachusetts & Cheshire, Connecticut

July 2021